My 2 cents.... If you really want a second X healer in the first team I prefer Marrow over X-23 at 220 points. She has 3 ranged attacks that will benefit from Sages' +1 booster and a defensive counter strike type power.

I had some other thoughts but then I remembered the armies could only include good guys, which really limits you quite a bit. I don't know if Marrow as a terrorist gets in over the Assassin X-23 or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chas

Yodaking,

X23 has Reformed! Has Marrow? That would be the criteria contained in the scenario that I would use, after looking her up on wikipedia. Lots of characters go back and forth between Good and Evil. So I'm assuming you can cherry pick from any stage of their career as you like. She'd have to have at least had a Good period, even if she went back to Evil later on.

The teams are set. Mine:

280 Wolverine
260 Archangel
230 Phoenix
220 Prof X
220 X23
190 Sage

Clearly 2 of Sage's Enhancement markers go on Wolverine and X23. Where should the third one go?

I have not yet played a game with Pheonix but since Archangle is most effective when rolling the d20 and Prof. X is just an OM dump, I would think she would be the best option for that 3rd marker. Of course you don't have to place all 3 of them, you could just place the 2 and then focus on attacking from that point forward.

Our map this time around is ¼ smaller than our usual footprint, being wider than it is deep, so we can get right into the action. It is 4 BU wide by only 3 BU deep (a Basic Unit being two 24 hexers mirrored into a rectangle) instead of the usual 4 x 4. However, between each of the 12 BUs is a strip of lower terrain—mostly rivers of water, with some swamp river, ice, or even molten lava to interrupt the regular water or provide ford crossings. The entire map is pretty flat, with a height being no more than three levels up from the base. The idea is not to give flyers too much of an advantage.

Each BU map section is unique, and partially screened off by sight blockers to form its own ‘arena’ for action, usually with a height area in the middle. So its not a symmetrical map. Each section has at least one river ford connecting it to its adjacent BUs, except where two sections are directly attached. Sight blockers include Ice Mountains, Rock Outcrops, Jungle Trees and Bushes, Pine Trees, and small elevated hills based on 7 hexers. There are a couple of three hex bands of shadow in the center. There are no castle walls castle doors, or roads. There is one bridge and one fortified hill (with castle battlements).

Our map this time around is ¼ smaller than our usual footprint, being wider than it is deep, so we can get right into the action. It is 4 BU wide by only 3 BU deep (a Basic Unit being two 24 hexers mirrored into a rectangle) instead of the usual 4 x 4. However, between each of the 12 BUs is a strip of lower terrain—mostly rivers of water, with some swamp river, ice, or even molten lava to interrupt the regular water or provide ford crossings. The entire map is pretty flat, with a height being no more than three levels up from the base. The idea is not to give flyers too much of an advantage.

Each BU map section is unique, and partially screened off by sight blockers to form its own ‘arena’ for action, usually with a height area in the middle. So its not a symmetrical map. Each section has at least one river ford connecting it to its adjacent BUs, except where two sections are directly attached. Sight blockers include Ice Mountains, Rock Outcrops, Jungle Trees and Bushes, Pine Trees, and small elevated hills based on 7 hexers. There are a couple of three hex bands of shadow in the center. There are no castle walls castle doors, or roads. There is one bridge and one fortified hill (with castle battlements).

***

"The entire map is pretty flat, with a height being no more than three levels up from the base." Great! Wolverine, X23, Blade, etc. thank you! Other than this, I'm imagining something that looks like a patchwork quilt from above. I'm wondering how far apart our armies will really be from each other, and how equidistant.

There are no start zones. We'll roll dice for our entry order, with the ability to enter anywhere on the map perimeter, with the first hex entered counting! All characters must be on the board by Round Three, or be left out (with no points to anyone for them).

So you can enter further away from your predecessor, but get jumped on right away by the next person coming in. Entry strategies will be important and interesting depending on the individuals' play styles, as you can be as canny or as Heat of Battle wacko, as you like. You don't even have to enter where you entered other figures on a previous turn--its all up to you!

Fixed, and thanks for the question about entry. I thought you'd like this. Yes, that's why we'll roll for order before anyone actually enters, rather than as we go--although it would be exciting and suspenseful that way too-- and display the results prominently with the Big Dice!

After a 12 hour sessions, including a 45 minute dinner break, from 2 PM--2 AM, all three games were played by the New York City Gang of Four. The huge board provided many different areas, and about 3/4 of it was directly used. The new Alien Entry Rules made for some very interesting developments.

All teams are numbered as in the previous post for identification, each player having their own teams 1-3. The results were as follows:

Game 1: Kolakoski, who came in closest to me, immediately offered me an alliance, which I accepted, and the other two then teamed up--all teams being theoretically temporary, but in this game lasting the entire length of the game. I was jumped immediately by Taeblewalker, who messed up my whole tactical deployment by forcing my ranged army to fight hand to hand. Kolakoski, who sent some help to me while fighting Sherman Davies on his own front, took away most of my kills by getting the final hits on them. I killed only Blue Lantern, ironically by Halo (the anti Lantern), who did it without him finding out about her powers until later.

Game 2: This time, anticipating TWs tactics, I set up Red Tornado near two lava hexes. Using his power, I proceded to keep dumping TWs team members into the lava. Although using my own Varient Molten Lava Rules which give a much greater spectrum of results, TW rolled incredibly badly, and died almost as soon as if we were using standard lava rules! I wiped out his entire team except for Groot. TW managed to keep the big tree in the game, with an assist from SD's Power Girl, but I got the points for her as well. Unable to kill Groot, I still ran away with the game on points.

Game 3: I came in mostly in an area away from the others, who seemed to be all fighting each other on the opposite end of the board. Since SD brought in Hercules all by himself near me, I planned to get his juicy points as a start. But although Mon-El hurt him badly initially, he was to last a long, long time.

I brought in a fast moving carrier, Dawnstar carrying Wyldfire, and scooped up both glyphs which Forge dropped and pulled back with them. As three teams had mutants, I expected they would be useful to me, but I never got to use them. I was too far from the main action to get back to it.

Finally SDs Nightcrawler teleported in with K's Scarleet Spider, who robbed me, getting Herc after I'd put all his wounds on him except one. This was a recurring theme in all my games, as I did lots of damage but was often unable to complete the defeat of my targets!

General Comments:

1. This was a particularly fun day, and everyone wanted to complete all three games, which we did. I'd be very interested in any player comments on the map, the scenario, and the Alien Entry Rules, etc. as I was the Game Master this time around and they were my creations. The concept of providing all three teams ahead of time, but rolling for them to enter each game randomly seemed to work very well, and allow us to complete all three games with no time lost for building teams between the games.

2. The vast array of mostly unfamiliar Good Supers meant that folks who waded into the enemy without reading the defenders cards were in for some nastly shocks.

3. K. managed to use lower points unusual heroes to fight off much more powerful beings very well, such as Daredevil and Scarlet Spider.

4.. Happy Birthday Sherman Davies!

(To Be Continued After Further Reflection)

5. I got to run a number of my own custom Supers, some for the first time against live opponents, which was great (see my team lists). No one asked that they be revised, although we did discuss a couple of points about them.

6. We revised Tomar Re's (by Fatsnack) recovery of markers power down: instead of 50% to recover one or two markers, we made it 50% to get zero or one.

7. Checking out the Green Lantern Corps team synergies among several different designers' work, a C3G Green Construct, and my own "anti-Lantern" (Halo) was also very interesting.